2019 Annual Grants SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 1972, Alaska Humanities Forum has provided grants to fund creative, independent projects by Alaskans. These include books, exhibits, films, archives, audio recordings, workshops, and performances that preserve and share Alaska's stories, connect people across our vast state, and explore what it means to be Alaskan. Annual grants of up to $10,000 per project are awarded in February of each year, selected from a wide range of applications from across the state. We are thrilled to provide funding of $78,000 for eight new projects in 2019. Take a look at our archive of past grants at akhf.org/grants.
Our Alaskan Stories 2019
Creating a Humanities Community
Tlingit Language Radio Broadcast and Word of the Week
Our Alaskan Stories is an Island Institute’s student filmmaking program based at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka. The Institute works with filmmaker mentors and small groups of students at Alaska’s state-run boarding school for rural Alaska residents to support the students in finding their voices in sharing their stories of home - stories of family, community, and culture. In the spring, students learn filmmaking skills and create storylines and interview lists. Over the summer, they conduct interviews and collect footage in their home communities. And, in the fall, they work through the challenging process of honing their message, selecting the best footage to deliver that message, creating their narrative, and editing the film for final screenings in Sitka.
The NN Cannery History Project (NNCHP) aims to create awareness of Bristol Bay’s rich cannery history, a history built on the foundation of the region’s pristine habitat and unparalleled sockeye salmon runs. NNCHP is partnering with the Alaska State Museum to produce an exhibition called “Mug-Up,” an expression for coffee break. Mug-Up provided respite from the slime-line and momentarily brought people together from around the world. Over time, cannery people developed unique identities and stories, which today remain littleknown or understood. Most public displays interpret Alaska’s salmon industry through fishermen rather than processors, whose collective knowledge of the mechanical operation, the physical labor, and the place itself formed the cannery’s industrial backbone. The grant will be applied toward the production of a professionally-crafted film, Cannery Caretakers, which will highlight a major theme in the exhibition: the story of the residents—the least represented workers of the salmon industry.
This project seeks to assist with normalizing the Tlingit language by developing and broadcasting content in partnership with KTOO radio in Juneau, a partner that is committed to bringing Tlingit to the airwaves. There will be two types of content: 1) a Word of the Week project that introduces a new Tlingit word every week and introduces five sentences over the weekdays, culminating with a reflection on the importance of the word and a recap of the sentences; 2) a weekly Tlingit language radio program that covers a set of topics and uses the Tlingit language to talk about local, regional, and national events. This material will be broadcast on KTOO and archived on their website, resulting in a high level of visibility and access. The funding from Alaska Humanities Forum will be used to purchase equipment in order to increase the capacity to create and manage multimedia content, to travel and work with speakers, and to create, edit, and broadcast content. This project will blend previously recorded Tlingit language with new recordings and will bring Tlingit language to the community through creative partnerships with language teachers and regional media companies.
Protocols for Working with Indigenous Communities in Alaska: A Guide for Museums Since the 18th century, Alaska Native material culture has been collected by museums around the world yet, historically, Alaska Native people have been left out of the process of museum work including exhibition design, collections care, and interpretation. Today, museums are increasingly acknowledging the importance of collaborating with indigenous communities. Some museums have experience with this, but others are learning how to collaborate in a way that is respectful and culturally appropriate. Through this grant project, Nadia Sethi (an art historian, museum consultant, and arts administrator at The CIRI Foundation) and Melissa Shaginoff (an artist and the curator of Contemporary Indigenous Art at the Anchorage Museum) will develop a working group of emerging and established Alaska Native museum professionals. Together, they will develop resources to help museums better understand how to work with Alaska Native communities. The hope is that this project will open up possibilities for the exchange of information, knowledge, and expertise between museums that are the caretakers of Alaska Native material culture and Alaska Native communities.
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